There is a lot of talk in our day about church health, and it is something that we think much of as well. In fact, one reason we do much of what we do and think much of what we think is because we have a particular view of what a healthy church looks like. One of the reasons, for example, we are not pursuing the mega-church format is because we believe there are certain ingredients that must be present and functioning in a church if it is to be considered “healthy,” and we believe those things are incredibly difficult if not impossible in the mega-church. Therefore, a drive behind many of the things that might distinguish us from others in our practices and methods as a church is our conviction of what are the necessary ingredients of a healthy church.

Now, in any topic of church health you can talk about a number of details that must be taking place if a church is to be considered healthy. Obviously we believe the Scripture must be publicly read, God’s Word faithfully preached, and his ordinances regularly observed if we are to be a healthy church. But this morning we want to step back a bit from those specific practices to be a bit more general about our thoughts about what a healthy community of believers looks like. In order to do that I want us to turn to Ephesians 4:1-16, a text that has really aided us in attempting to craft who it is that we are to be as a church and how it is that we must think and function in order to carry out this goal.

Therefore, as we look through the text let me simply note a few elements that this text shows us need to be present within a local church if it is to be considered healthy. This first element for church health is found in the first six verses. However, I believe we feel the weight of these verses more when we understand the text as a whole. Therefore, I want to begin with verses 7-11. And it is there that we find a necessary ingredient for church health that may be surprising to us. It is that we need to see ourselves and one another as gifts from Christ to the church.

We must see ourselves and one another as gifts from Christ to the local church

However, in order to set up these verses, let me tell you generally what Paul has said in these verses. He began by urging the church to walk worthy of their calling, to walk in a manner that shows they understand they have been redeemed and belong to Christ, and then he goes on to outline what that look like. And, not surprisingly, for Paul “walking worthy” or living a holy life is not something that an individual does by himself. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation from others. To put it simply, the idea that the highest form of holiness is to remove yourself from the community so that you can pursue great intimacy with God is wrong-headed, unbiblical, and will prove itself to be empty. Holiness is lived out in community.

Therefore, Paul begins to describe what walking worthy looks like talking about dealing with one another in humility, gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (2-3). Then he points out that this unity is something that should be natural for us seeing that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. We are a unified people because our one God has redeemed us, to one body, through one gospel, for one purpose. However, with that said, Paul follows with a word of contrast – “but.”

Paul doesn’t want us to get confused over what unity looks like. He wants us to know that to be unified doesn’t mean that we’re all the same. To have unity in a symphony we do not have to play the same instrument, we simply have to be playing our different parts within one piece of music. And so Paul wants us to know that God has designed us differently. Therefore, he shows that each of us has received grace from God, writing, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (7). Then, to support this claim, Paul references the Old Testament, writing in verse 8, “Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.’” And this seems to make sense in light of him writing in verse 7 that grace has been given to each of us he quotes an Old Testament text saying that he gave gifts to men, and specifically he shows us that this is the Christ who gave gifts to men, for he writes in verses 9-10, “In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.’” So, Paul argues that this Old Testament text to which he’s referring in Ephesians 4:8 is talking about Christ ascending, leading a host of captives, and giving gifts to men.

The problem comes, however, when you begin to search for the text that Paul here is quoting. For at first glance it appears as if he is quoting Psalm 68:18 where the psalmist writes, “You have ascended on high, you have led captive your captives; you have received gifts from men.” But we see a problem with this, don’t we? Paul writes that Jesus gave gifts to men, but Psalm 68 doesn’t say he gave gifts to men but that he received gifts from men.

So what then is Paul doing? Is he hoping that his readers never get curious enough to search out the text that he is quoting and trying to pull a fast one on them, changing a word in the verse of a psalm because he cannot find a text to support his conclusion from 4:7? No, I don’t think so. If he couldn’t find an Old Testament text to support his claim he simply could not have used one. After all, he is an apostle and writes with the apostolic authority given to him by his Lord. He doesn’t need to support his every claim with another text; his writings themselves are Scripture. So why then would he not quote this text accurately? Why change “received” to “gave”?

I believe the answer is found in understanding the background of Psalm 68. Like many other psalms, Psalm 68 is a psalm which is retelling a portion of Israel’s history in a poetic form. We find this, for example, as we read of a psalm speaking of God drowning individuals worded very poetically, and then we say, “Oh, he’s retelling the story of the Exodus.” Psalm 68 is of the same variety. And it appears the background of the psalm is the events that take place in Numbers 8.

We remember that during the Passover the Lord spared the firstborn of the Israelites so that they did not die. However, by redeeming them from this punishment, all the firstborn among Israel were rightly his. Instead of taking the firstborn, though, the Lord declares in Numbers 8 that he is going to take the Levites as his own. Specifically we read in Numbers 8:14-19, ““Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. Then after that the Levites may go in to serve the tent of meeting. But you shall cleanse them and present them as a wave offering; for they are wholly given to me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for myself instead of every first-born of all the sons of Israel. For every first-born among the sons of Israel is mine, among the men and among the animals; on the day that I struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself. But I have taken the Levites instead of every first-born among the sons of Israel. And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the sons of Israel, to perform the service of the sons of Israel at the tent of meeting, and to make atonement on behalf of the sons of Israel, that there may be no plague among the sons of Israel by their coming near the sanctuary.”

Thus, instead of taking the firstborn, the Lord takes the Levites. But note the progression of the text here. The lord declares “I have taken the Levites instead of every firstborn among the sons of Israel,” and then he declares, “And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the sons of Israel, to perform the service of the sons of Israel at the tent of meeting, and to make atonement on behalf of the sons of Israel, that there may be no plague among the sons of Israel by their coming near the sanctuary.” That is, he took them captive as his own, but then he equipped them and gave them back to the community to serve among the people so that their sins might be atoned for and so they might prosper.

This gives us insight, then, into what Paul is doing in Ephesians 4:8. He is not simply quoting Psalm 68:18 and, therefore, misquoting it. Rather, he is using a majority of the language of Psalm 68:18 to point us to the reality that Psalm 68 talks about, namely, the taking and giving of the Levites.¹ Therefore, by pointing us to this text, what Paul wants his readers to understand is that every individual who is a part of the church and truly knows Christ, knows Christ because he has been taken captive by Christ. Jesus loved us enough to die for us and pursue us when we were his enemies. And in grace he has taken us as his own. However, he has taken us as his own not to stop there, but then he has given each one of us grace and then given us back to his church to serve among his people. That is to say, this isn’t a text simply about Christ giving men gifts but giving men as gifts to the church. This is supported by the very next verse, for he writes in verse 11, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers.” He has given each of us, each of you, to the church as a gift from Christ himself. That is what Paul wants us to see. And though we could read this as simply the leaders in the church since he talks about the Levites in Numbers 8 and Paul speaks of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in Ephesians 4:11, it is clear that Paul is expanding this to every single individual in the church because he writes in verse 7 that “grace was given to each one of us” and continues to talk about the entire body of believers throughout the rest of the chapter.

Therefore, one element which we long for and believe to be a necessary ingredient for a church to function in a healthy manner is that each individual needs to see himself or herself as a gift from Christ to the church, having been captured by him, given grace, and then given back to the church. We believe that every member of this church needs to see himself or herself as a gift that Christ has sovereignly given to this local body of believers. You have been sovereignly planted here as a gift from Christ to us. This is why every time we receive members we note before the Lord that we recognize these individuals as gifts from the hand of Christ to us.

But to what end are we all given? This question leads us to the next element necessary for a church to function in a healthy manner. Every member needs to supply to the body by serving others.

We must supply to the body by serving others

If we ask to what end we are given to the church, Paul doesn’t allow us to wait long without an answer. He writes in verses 12-13, “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ.” We have been given to the church so that through our service others may be equipped for service so that together the whole body is built up and grows, being made more like Christ.

We all need each other to labor effectively. Therefore, as each of us serves and labors together, each of us will be equipped to serve and labor more effectively so that the whole body will grow. We can imagine this if we simply imagine two people. For example, if you have someone given to intercessory prayer and another individual gifted to teach Scripture. No doubt as the one prays for the other he will be greater equipped to teach the Scriptures in power, and as the one teaches the other he will be greater equipped to pray in accordance with the Scriptures so that as each continues to labor together both will grow and be made more like Christ. Now, imagine a group of ten people laboring like that. Imagine their growth together. Then, imagine a group of 100. I think the picture is clear. This is exactly how the church is to function. Therefore, it should be obvious to us that a church functioning this way is going to see great spiritual growth, for that is simply the nature of a healthy church.

In fact, according to verse 14, one product of each individual ministering in the body will be that the church will be more doctrinally stable as well. Paul follows writing that he gave us as gifts to equip the body adding, “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” As the whole church matures there comes greater stability to the whole.

Finally, then, Paul gives us the entire beautiful picture. Instead of being immature and tossed about remaining in our childishness, we have the picture of verses 15-16. Paul writes, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Instead of remaining in immaturity, as we speak the truth and love and each part of the body (that is, each member) works and functions properly, serving the church, the whole body will grow and build itself in love. But note that it requires every joint with which the body is equipped and each part working properly. Translating the analogy, for a church to be healthy it demands every single individual that God has placed in that church serving the church out of who God has made him or her by his grace.

So, with that picture we can return to this first element in the text from verses 1-6.

Understanding our need for one another, we must labor to maintain unity of the Spirit in the church

Because we understand that we need each other so desperately and that our spiritual growth is dependent on each individual in the body and each individual functioning properly we need to be humble and gentle with one another, be patient with one another, bear with one another in love, and be eager not to divide the body but to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We must be eager to labor for unity, realizing our need one another. It means that we are with another, binding ourselves to one another in Christian fellowship, even as George Bethune wrote in 1864, “It is the order of grace that Christians are instrumentally dependent upon each other; as we grow they grow; and as they grow we grow. Whatever we do for their benefit is for our own; whatever they do for our benefit is for their own. Thus it is not only our duty, but our best interest, to impart freely of all God’s gifts to us for the benefit of our fellow Christians. There must be a communion [sharing] of prayers and acts and gifts, as there is a communion of grace. If we refuse this closeness of union to our fellow-Christians, we shall suffer doubly; for the Holy Spirit will not use us as the channels of his grace to them, nor can the effectual working through them reach us. Nothing but weakness and death can result from such selfish isolation.”

Seeing ourselves and one another as gifts from Christ to the church, laboring in service so that all may be equipped and built up, and eagerly laboring maintain unity and peace - that is what it means to walk worthy of our calling as believers. It means laboring for the whole church because we realize that there is one body, one Spirit, one calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is over all and in all and through all.

Therefore, my prayer this morning is that we might be conformed to this text. My hope is that we would hold up this text to this community as a standard and be changed and conformed to Christ as we look at it constantly as a picture for what his beautiful bride is meant to be. May his grace continue to shape and conform us to his Word. Amen.

¹This understanding of Paul’s use of Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4:8 has been put forth by Gary V. Smith, “Paul’s Use of Psalm 68:18 in Ephesians 4:8,” JETS 18 (1975), 181-89.

WHAT DOES A HEALTHY CHURCH LOOK LIKE?